However air travel remains a very safe mode of travel. The willingness of many airlines and regulatory agencies to ground the Boeing 737 MAX 8 after the Ethiopian Airlines accident underlines this focus on safety.

But one question arising from both the recent Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines accidents and the demise of the A380 is the role of technology and innovation in aviation.

The 737 has baggage

Aircraft design has been on a constant path of innovation. The Boeing 737 series jets are derived from the early Jet Age Boeing 707.

While very little of that 1960s ancestor remains several generations later, its heritage has imposed some design constraints on the larger versions of the Boeing 737 family.

Improvements in technology mean that current aircraft are significantly quieter and dramatically more fuel efficient than their predecessors, but the changes have come in incremental steps rather than from a clean sheet of paper.

In 2011 US-based Boeing faced a challenge from the Airbus 320 Neo, and had to choose between designing a completely new aircraft or adopting a re-engined version of the existing Boeing 737 family.

The recent decision to end production of the A380 after Emirates scaled back its final orders has been followed by a decision by Lufthansa to trade in eight aircraft from its 14 strong A380 fleet as part of an order for new A350-900 aircraft.

The A380 was arguably an aircraft that arrived a generation too late.

Built as a super-hub connector, it arrived as markets were starting to move away from pushing passengers to larger hub airports for connecting flights to increasing the number of non-stop links.

Between 1996-2016, the global air passenger market grew from 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion passengers per year. Over that same period the number of direct city pairs served by airlines more than doubled, spreading passengers over thousands more services.

Global air travel demand — now more than 4 billion passengers per year — is large enough for many city pairs to be served on a non-stop basis rather than through hub connections.

While total air traffic grew 2.6 times, the average route-density of traffic only grew by 29 per cent. This has meant buying larger planes like the A380 was no longer in vogue.

Strategic shift pays off

The strong order books for the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus 320 Neo aircraft, as well as their larger Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 siblings, came from this strategic shift in aviation strategy.

The most recent advances in aircraft technology have given aircraft that previously only served short haul domestic and regional markets the range to cross the North Atlantic, and the right scale to connect smaller city pairs.

It is worth noting that some of the largest orders for both the Boeing 737 MAX 8 and Airbus 320 Neo aircraft families are from airlines in China.

The Chinese regulators have taken a notably conservative approach to grounding the Boeing 737 MAX 8, sensitive to the relatively rapid growth of the Chinese carriers.

The way forward

A clear view of the way forward will have to wait until a thorough analysis of the Ethiopian Airlines accident is completed, but changes to aircraft software, crew training, and perhaps even pilot type-rating for the aircraft must be on the table.

The thoroughness of aviation accident investigation means that the cause of this week's accident will be found, and that action will be taken to address the design changes or training needed to prevent a recurrence.

The heightened sensitivity to safety will ease off, as it has after other major incidents with aircraft from any company, but there will be a financial impact as well as the loss of lives.